Seven countries – Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal – will be the first recipients of immediate funding from the G7 ‘Global Shield’ initiative launched to support countries suffering from climate disasters. The initiative was launched on Monday at the ongoing United Nations’ COP27 climate summit in Egypt. Coordinated by the G7 president nation Germany, the Global Shield programme aims to provide rapid access to funds for insurance and disaster protection after flooding, drought and hurricanes. The programme was developed in collaboration w
Liberal rights advocate Natasa Pirc Musar has won a run-off vote to become Slovenia’s first female president since the country became independent after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991. Since no candidate won an outright majority in the first round of the Slovenian election on October 23, a run-off was held on November 13 between conservative candidate Anže Logar and lawyer Natasa Pirc Musar. With nearly all of the votes counted, Pirc Musar led Slovenia’s conservative former Foreign Minister Anze Logar by 54 percent to 46 percent. A prominent lawyer, Pirc Musar, 54, had repr
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a formal visit to Bali, Indonesia, from November 14-16, to attend the 17th G20 Summit. The summit is also likely to be attended by US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, among others. The summit will see G20 leaders deliberating extensively upon key global issues under the Summit theme of "Recover Together, Recover Stronger”. The three working sessions will be on food and energy security; health; and digital transformation. The Indian Prime Minister will hold bil
The multilateral naval exercise, Malabar 2022, between India, Japan, the United States and Australia began on Wednesday at Yokosuka in Japan. The opening ceremony was hosted by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) onboard JS Hyuga. Rear Admiral Sanjay Bhalla, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, led the Indian delegation that included commanding officers and the crew of INS Shivalik and INS Kamorta. Vice Admiral Yuasa Hideki, Commander in Chief, Self Defense Fleet JMSDF, Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, Commander, US Navy Seventh Fleet, and Rear Admiral Jonathan Earley, Commander of Au
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop one of the world’s largest onshore wind projects in Egypt. The MoU was signed between the UAE’s renewable energy firm Masdar alongside its joint venture with Egypt’s main renewable energy developer Infinity and Hassan Allam Utilities on the sidelines of the ongoing COP27 climate summit in Egypt’s coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh. On completion, the wind farm would be part of Egypt’s Green Corridor initiative. It is a grid dedicated to renewable energy projects and aimed at ensuring
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday unveiled the logo, theme and website of India's G20 Presidency, asserting that G20 in 2023 will be a chance to present India’s developmental progress aimed at advancing global good. India will assume the presidency of the powerful grouping from current chair Indonesia on December 1. The logo has the Earth juxtaposed with the lotus and theme, “Vasudhaiva Kutumba-kam” or “One Earth One Family One Future.” Elaborating on the theme, he said that India is working on the vision of bringing the whole world together for a common objective, for a be
India and France will conduct joint surveillance and ocean mapping of the Mozambique Channel, Mauritius and South-West Indian Ocean from November 9-11 with Indian Navy’s Boeing P 8 I and French Navy’s Falcon 50. The announcement was made after the successful completion of India-France Air Force exercise over Rajasthan sector on Tuesday. The announced joint surveillance of France and India will be their second after the surveillance conducted on the eastern board of Africa in March 2022. In addition to joint surveillance and ocean bed mapping, the strategic allies have committed to c
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has returned to power, as the final vote count from elections last week declared a clear majority in parliament, the Knesset, for him and his far-right allies. Last week’s election was Israel's fifth election in less than four years. The results released by the country’s electoral commission last week declared that Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party had got 32 seats in the 120-seat parliament. Netanyahu’s Likud party won 32 seats, while ultra-Orthodox parties secured 18 seats, and a far-right alliance accomplished 14 seats, said the
The heads of delegations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states discussed priority steps to increase trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation within the eight-member group in a meeting on Tuesday. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hosted the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of member states of the SCO via video link. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was a part of the virtual meeting. The other heads of government and representatives of SCO member states that participated in the meeting included Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Z
Algeria is hosting the 31st summit of the 22-member Arab League that held its last summit in 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In the last three years, new challenges have emerged and significantly reshaped the region’s agenda, especially after a string of normalisation deals with Israel that have divided the region and the consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The summit presents an opportunity for Algeria, Africa’s largest country by territory, to display its leadership in the Arab world. The nation is a major oil and gas producer and a potential supplier to Europ